Buyers include couple from the US
Two women officials from a Kolkata orphanage were arrested for allegedly selling babies to couples from United States, Singapore, Spain and France, besides India.
Chandana Chakraborty, who runs the NGO North Bengal People’s Development Centre and the orphanage Bimala Sishu Griho, and Sonali Mondal, chief adoption officer with the NGO, were arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Sunday, The Telegraph reported.
According to the police officers, the orphanage sold at least four babies abroad. They sometimes took the money but did not deliver the baby.
“We believe they received Rs. 10 lakh [$15000] from an American couple and Rs. 4 lakh [$6000] from an India couple for the same baby but did not give it to either. Another infant, sold to a Singaporean couple, fetched Rs. 2 lakh [$3000],” an officer told the newspaper. He also said that the American couple were not NRIs.
The investigating officers are now looking for Juhee Chowdhury, general secretary of the BJP Mahila Morcha, Bengal Chapter.
“She’s a key suspect. She visited Delhi several times to get renewal papers for the home,” an officer added.
Chowdhury had introduced Chakraborty to some central ministers and officials, another officer said adding that “a couple of days ago, she stayed overnight at Juhee’s home”.
However, Chowdhury’s father Rabindra Narayan Chowdhury, a BJP state committee member, told The Telegraph that Chakraborty had come to the family for help with “funds and some documents and permissions from the Centre” for her NGO.
“We knew about the allegations against her and offered to discuss her request once she had been cleared. Many people come to us; that doesn’t mean we are involved in their wrongdoings,” he said.
Both Chakraborty and Mondal were presented before the court on Sunday and remanded in 13 days CID custody. District authorities shifted 11 infants from the Shishu Griho to homes in Cooch Behar and North Dinajpur.